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Prosecutors eye reopening 2008 crash fatality case

Date Posted: 2010-09-23

A fatal traffic collision between a motorcycle and a car in Miyakojima nearly two years ago left a teen dead, but the car’s driver cleared of wrongdoing.

Today, police investigators are reinvestigating the accident, which involved a car careening into a motorcycle, killing the 17-year-old boy riding as a passenger. The new investigation has been spurred by police meeting with the victim’s surviving family members who contend the driver wasn’t really the driver that November 2008 day.

The family contention is that the woman driving the car really wasn’t, and that it was her 17-year-old driver behind the wheel. They tell police they think the mother lied to police to protect her daughter. “Sure there’s a guilty person,” says the dead boy’s mother. “If there’s any small darkness point, it should be made clear.” A justice official says “this case might be reinvestigated to see if a fellow passenger was involved. It’s very possible.”